Where did the day go?
I had every intention today of writing my GBBD post today, as I've been sucked into helping at a family yard sale tomorrow, but that's just not going to happen. Let's see, a late night looking at online seed catalogs turned into a slightly late morning, followed by a bit of exercise interspersed periodically with moving sprinklers around outside. That turned into a bit of puttering about weeding and cleaning up a bit. It all culminated in me harvesting the basil in the vegetable garden to make pesto. I cut enough basil to fill a 15 quart bucket to overflowing, then spent more than three hours washing the basil, cutting out the toughest bits of stem, and turning it all into about 4.5 quarts of pesto. Most of that went straight to the freezer. Somehow it turned into a rather busy day, and now I simply don't feel like running around the yard taking pictures for Bloom Day. Before I realized that GBBD was on a Saturday this month, I was going to write a post regarding the growings on in the vegetable garden, but it seems that will be delayed even further. Aw, who cares? I've got fresh pesto!
Ok, here's a little preview of the vegetable garden, as it pertains to this brief excuse-making post. This is what the basils looked like before. They've all been cut down by about 2/3rds now. It's been overcast and misty most of the day. Hopefully my oca doesn't resent loosing its shade too much when the sun comes back out.
Ok, here's a little preview of the vegetable garden, as it pertains to this brief excuse-making post. This is what the basils looked like before. They've all been cut down by about 2/3rds now. It's been overcast and misty most of the day. Hopefully my oca doesn't resent loosing its shade too much when the sun comes back out.
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| Left to right: 'Sweet Dani' lemon basil, 'Finissimo Verde a Palla' basil, and 'Siam Queen' Thai basil. I was going to make separate batches of pesto using each kind of basil, but decided to throw them all together instead! The trifoliate leaves in the shadow of 'Sweet Dani' belong to Oxalis tuberosa, commonly known as oca. |
When pressed for time to put together a GBBD post or a FF, I've occasionally run out quick and taken one photo to use. That makes for a nice quickie. The posts are useful to keep track of what blooms when, but you don't always have to document every single flower.
ReplyDeleteI know I don't have to document every single flower. I understand the concept in theory, at least. I just have trouble in practice.
DeleteWait, 4.5 quarts of pesto? How much olive oil and parmesan is that? And pine nuts? Or did you go a non-pine nut route???
ReplyDeleteAnswers: Yes. A lot. I didn't have pine nuts so I used walnuts and pecans. See previous answer.
DeleteLol. I guess I went a little crazy. It freezes well, sans parmesan. The recipe I found also recommends leaving out the garlic if you're going to freeze it, and adding in those ingredients before use. So most of it went to the freezer and I only made a little with garlic and parmesan included for immediate use.
I'd say that was a day well spent.
ReplyDeleteTwas a day deliciously spent. :)
DeleteGBBD is quickly past, and blog readers can be fickle, but 4.5 quarts of pesto will stick around for quite a while. Lovely basil.
ReplyDeleteSo true. And I'm one of the more fickle readers lately.
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